Why do we Pray? : Aquinas and Meditation
By: Colin Pickett, Seminarian, St. Joseph’s Parish, Sunnyside
Why do we pray? Christ taught his disciples to pray always (Lk 18:1). As Christians today we ought to continue Christ’s teaching. Many people pray daily, but why we pray is often overlooked. Why do we pray? Why does Christ want us to pray? It’s easy to say, “Because the Scriptures and Tradition tells us to do so,” but that does not fully answer the question. To investigate this we will use the work of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Why Should we Know? To pray well, two things must be known: why and how. Why should we know why we pray? Knowing why we pray affects how well we pray; the knowledge of “why” directs our “how.” The clearer the reason, the better the action.
Classic Objections. St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274 A.D.) analyzes prayer in his monumental work called the Summa Theologica. Aquinas, at first, cites three objections, with which he disagrees, against prayer (ST II:II: q83. A2):
(1) When we pray, we try to make our needs known to whom we pray, but Matthew 6:22 says, “Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.” Is prayer then not a denial of God’s knowledge? Therefore, it is unbecoming to pray.
(2) When we pray, we try to change the mind of, or influence the decisions of the person to whom we are praying, so that he may do what we ask of him. But, “God’s mind is unchangeable and inflexible,” since He is a perfect being, and what is perfect cannot change. If God were not perfect, then He would not be God. Therefore it is unbecoming to pray to God.
(3) “Further, it is more generous to give to one that asks not, than to one who asks because, according to Seneca (De Benefic. Ii, 1), ‘nothing is bought more dearly that what is bought with prayers.’ But God is supremely generous.” Therefore it is unbecoming to pray to God.
Answer to Objections. Aquinas answers; “we pray not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may impetrate [obtain by prayer] that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers, in other words ‘that by asking, men may deserve to receive what Almighty God from eternity has disposed to give,’ as Gregory says (Dial. I, 8).” (ST II:II: q83. A2) Prayer aligns our thoughts and actions to the will of God.
Seeking the Will of God. To be a Christian is to seek to do (Ja 1:22) the will of God. We also must know the God’s will within our hearts through prayer. The goal of prayer is Christian Perfection (Mt 5:48) (Ps 101) that “consists in the transformation of our will, so that we no longer wish for anything but what God wishes, and because He wishes it…” (Rene de Maugmigny, S.J. The Practice of Mental Prayer, 21)
The Best Way. Mental prayer (meditation) is the best means to acclimate ourselves to God’s will. Aquinas writes that, “devotion is an act of the will to the effect that man surrenders himself readily to the service of God. Now every act of the will proceeds from some consideration, since the object of the will is an understood good. Wherefore Augustine says (De Trin. ix, 12: xv, 23) that ‘the will arises from the intelligence.’ Consequently meditation must be the cause of devotion, in so far as through meditation man conceives the thought of surrendering himself in God’s service.” (ST, II-II:q82 a2)
Prayer and Transformation. Prayer is an action by which we seek to transform our will so that it coincides with the will of God, for the purpose of achieving Christian Perfection and salvation. It is no wonder that Christ taught us to pray, “Thy will be done.” (Mt 6:9)
This is perfect because I was actually thinking about those classic objections the other day and was confused. This has cleared it up for me. Thank you! :)
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